Please spread the word, " From May 24 until July 4, Uber and Lyft will offer everyone in America free rides to and from COVID-19 vaccination sites." @Potus
— Dr. Cole McKinnon (@DrMcKinn) May 26, 2021
Hot topic of the moment: Is it possible COVID-19 is the result of a lab leak? Absolutely — although I, personally, still rate that at no higher than 15%. Is it plausible? Again, open question, and not just because the people promoting the lab-leak theory have highly suspect agendas. And if it *was* a lab leak, is it provable? I’m collecting articles for a dedicated post about the whole fustercluck, but in the interim, here’s a pretty good summary from a reputable third party:
Biden orders intelligence report on virus origin https://t.co/ipXFwmjCL1
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 26, 2021
Just went live, interview with @hereandnow on @NPR @wbur about where we stand now in the USA and globally with #COVID19 …https://t.co/ZVtZ4ZcbwZ
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 26, 2021
Clarification re. natural vs. lab origins from Dr. Fauci yesterday who "told CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang that his opinion about the origins of Covid-19 have not changed and still believes that its origin in nature is "highly likely."" https://t.co/Eb2xErkfOB
— Peter Daszak (@PeterDaszak) May 26, 2021
======
Stunning visualization of Covid-19 vaccine inequity
Nearly all countries in Africa are at 2% or less coverage for a single dose@MaxCRoser @OurWorldInData pic.twitter.com/ve1mTI2TKC
— Madhu Pai, MD, PhD (@paimadhu) May 25, 2021
India posts daily rise in COVID-19 cases of 211,298 https://t.co/UarA1Sqk3A pic.twitter.com/Hp9C7EKhyX
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2021
Poverty, fear and a lack of facilities are adding to COVID-19 fatalities in the remote villages of India's Uttarakhand, where many shun tests for fear of testing positive and being forced to go to hospital far from home https://t.co/ldGNyPJW2p by @sankalp_sp and @dansiddiqui pic.twitter.com/g00LANMRuC
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2021
India has held talks with Pfizer, J&J, Moderna for COVID-19 vaccines https://t.co/Fm0olzkueQ pic.twitter.com/2VN0Kmz1ZR
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2021
No one's safe anymore: Osaka's healthcare system is crumpling under #Covid's onslaught. Hospitals are running out of beds & ventilators as exhausted doctors warn of a “system collapse,” and advise against holding the Olympics there this summer https://t.co/rXaiIrBA8o
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) May 26, 2021
After a year of success, Taiwan is struggling with a testing backlog for coronavirus cases amid its largest outbreak since the pandemic began. https://t.co/VHNfDtJVGB
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 27, 2021
Why calls to open up Australia's borders are meeting resistance https://t.co/qZ1LUXdFWb
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 26, 2021
Australia’s second-most populous state of Victoria will enter a one-week COVID-19 lockdown forcing its near seven million residents to remain home except for essential business as authorities struggle to contain a highly infectious outbreak https://t.co/JRA23OAhmd pic.twitter.com/PddO9c0l6a
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2021
A local coffee shop in Baghdad is encouraging people to get their jabs by offering free coffee to those who show their vaccination card pic.twitter.com/T3zlpFQyT4
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 27, 2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that mandating coronavirus vaccinations would be “impractical and impossible” amid an ongoing debate on how to ramp up the country’s slow Covid-19 vaccine take-up https://t.co/q0meRSURtQ
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) May 27, 2021
Countries that rely on tourism are eager to reopen to foreign visitors, but the patchwork of rules around the globe can be hard to follow for anyone planning a trip. https://t.co/AkhTRq7ljN
— AP Business News (@APBusiness) May 26, 2021
France imposes quarantine on UK travellers https://t.co/XrlQi7bZlh
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 26, 2021
Whistleblower protection groups are urging the World Health Organization to launch an independent review into the case of an Italian researcher who reported being pressured to falsify data in a now-spiked WHO report into Italy’s coronavirus response. https://t.co/UauUbBqTAl
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) May 26, 2021
Brazil's Covid death toll surpasses 450,000 as delays plague the hard-hit country's vaccine rollout. Epidemiologists, meanwhile, are warning that a brutal new surge of the virus could be coming https://t.co/4dIgr0WzBt pic.twitter.com/qg4fn2PMZC
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) May 26, 2021
Gave a talk today @karolinskainst on the global response to covid-19. One thing I discussed: the piece I wrote with @clarewenham on how the US & UK were ranked the 2 nations best prepared. Yet Trump & Johnson performed among the very worst on earth.
1/n https://t.co/1SEfG7xgQd— Prof. Gavin Yamey MD MPH (@GYamey) May 25, 2021
Trump wasn’t the only autocrat to let a lot of ‘his’ people die needlessly, and we need better guardrails before the (inevitable) next pandemic:
As @clarewenham and I say, the scorecard "did not account for the political context in which a national policy response to a pandemic is formulated and implemented"
In particular, it didn't account for the behavior of illiberal populists (eg Trump, Johnson, Bolsonaro, Modi)
4/n
— Prof. Gavin Yamey MD MPH (@GYamey) May 25, 2021
In class today, one of the @karolinskainst students asked: how can we prevent another Trump from dropping the ball again in a future pandemic?
It's a great question!
I don't have the answers, obviously. But I think that on crucial protection needs to be put in place.
5/n
— Prof. Gavin Yamey MD MPH (@GYamey) May 25, 2021
======
More very good #COVID19 #vaccine news — durable responses.
It's possible your vaccine will protect you for years.https://t.co/DWGQ9tNrW0— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 26, 2021
"The most important takeaway is that a vaccination approach with an adenovirus-vectored vaccine followed by an mRNA vaccine is likely to be safe and immunogenic, but further evaluation is needed," said @IVACtweets director William Moss. https://t.co/O9m3m0d1xN
— Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (@JohnsHopkinsSPH) May 25, 2021
Scientists have developed a thorough profile of California's 'homegrown' coronavirus. Calif's variant actually comes in 2 forms—B.1.427 & B.1.429—each w/ a unique combination of mutations. Now, a collaborative study has produced a comprehensive portrait https://t.co/7He9VGGzNq
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) May 26, 2021
Oxygen shortages threaten ‘total collapse’ of dozens of health systems https://t.co/SROgkqcwqK
— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) May 25, 2021
When cases are low, countries should make most of their resources and prepare for a possible resurgence.@srobanaghosh @lornaguinness @yling_chi @peterbaker17 @JavierHGuzmanC @H7RAL draw lessons from India + recommendations for second wave preparations: https://t.co/heK9ZtLqvr.
— Center for Global Development (@CGDev) May 26, 2021
.@Dereklowe on why #Covid19 is going to be less a focus of his insightful blog going forward & why he's not playing whack-a-mole with all the objections vaccine-nervous people find not to get vaccinated. https://t.co/FZ9laN70hG
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) May 26, 2021
======
#Covid19 deaths soared in communities where local hospitals closed during the worst public health crisis of this century. Many of these hospitals served largely African American communities. A special report from @OliviaGoldhill. https://t.co/zuZIZXSafL
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) May 26, 2021
As COVID-19 hit New York, Anita Emly saw more people in her community lose their lives. On Facebook, anti-vaxxers began to campaign against coronavirus restrictions.
“It really hit home,” she told @CodaStory. “It made me run from the anti-vax movement.” https://t.co/7KQazTnUrJ
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 26, 2021
how florida and texas won the pand… oh never mind https://t.co/OQhzPH8NzK
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) May 27, 2021
i did not expect actual hell to have such meticulous public health measures. thanks, the actual devil, for your due diligence. https://t.co/8KHGzsR6sY
— World Famous Art Thief (@CalmSporting) May 26, 2021
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY stats:
86 new cases – 57% were people under 40, including 21 children between 0 and 19. Adults in their 40s had the most new cases at 16. The age groups 10-19, 20-29 and 30-39 each had 14 cases.
Deaths are at 1291.
2.6% test positivity
167 patients hospitalized, 42 patients in the ICU
56.1% of Monroe County has at least 1 jab
49% are fully vaccinated
Amir Khalid
Why is Naomi Wolf being such a baby about scanning a QR code? Does she find it that onerous? Does she, with her fancy edumacation, still not understand the need for contact-tracing data? Harrumph.
satby
@Amir Khalid: Naomi Wolf is a covid truther who now spins her bullshit on shows like Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones.
satby
@Amir Khalid: How has the vaccine rollout been going in Malaysia now that Ramadan is over?
YY_Sima Qian
On 5/26 China reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangdong Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 4 domestic confirmed & 12 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Anhui Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There are 8 domestic confirmed & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Liaoning Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There are 11 domestic confirmed & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
In Yunnan Province, there currently are 7 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases.
Imported Cases
On 5/26 China reported 17 new imported confirmed cases, 18 imported asymptomatic cases:
Overall in China, 12 confirmed cases recovered, 11 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 1 was reclassified as confirmed case, and 287 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 327 active confirmed cases in the country (297 imported), 3 in serious condition (all imported), 392 asymptomatic cases (363 imported), 2 suspect case (1 imported). 7,570 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 5/26, 566.723M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 20.009M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 5/27, Hong Kong did not report any new positive cases.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
I really wish it were faster. So far about 2.6 million people have been vaccinated (just under 22,000 yesterday) and about 938,000 of them, mostly frontliners, have had their second dose. That leaves some 30 million Malaysians still unvaccinated, including me.
Cermet
The whole issue of where the virus came from is next to irrelevant at this point; certainly useful to know what animal was the host but not going to make any difference in any treatment or (now!) prevention. Covid is locked into the human race and it is highly unlikely we can end covid via vaccination.
If it was leakage from the lab in Wuhan 1) again, doesn’t help us now but certainly better safety is critical for all such research centers (including everyone else’s) 2) Covid, unlike flu, is far more easy to catch so not to surprised this could happen if extreme measures where not taken. 3) For those nutcases – sorry but this was from nature and there is currently zero evidence anyone created this monster.
satby
@Amir Khalid: ? Is the limiting factor vaccine supply? I imagine India’s Serum Institute is a major supplier to it’s neighbors. I hope our country can step up aid.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cermet: I might be useful to nail down how it entered the human population to take measures to reduce it happening again.
YY_Sima Qian
A.L., I agree with you on the matter of lab leak, though I would put the possibility even lower, at ~ < 5%.
The only lab leak scenario under consideration is a naturally occurring virus being collected and studied in the lab (either Wuhan Institute of Virology or Wuhan CDC lab, latter is actually the one relatively close to Hua’nan Seafood Market), then somehow leaked from the lab due to poor procedure. However, scientific consensus so far appears to be against SARS-CoV-2 being a lab created chimera via Gain of Function study. Yet the original strain prevalent in Wuhan in Dec. 2019 was already relatively well adapted to infect humans. So, what does the lab leak scenario actually mean in this context? That a naturally occurring, well adapted to humans virus started an outbreak (then a pandemic) via either the BSL-2 Wuhan CDC lab or the BSL-4 WIV lab, where there are extensive procedures and training to prevent leaks (much more stringent so in the latter’s case), as opposed to zoonosis from its natural reservoir to humans via any number of close encounters with said unsuspecting humans. It would also suggest that as word of a novel coronavirus started to percolate up and across China’s health care system and public health management bureaucracy, and after it was sequenced by several Chinese labs, researchers at the Wuhan CDC or the WIV lab failed to notice the match to what they are studying, failed to recognized the pandemic potential, and failed to raise warnings (or were ignored), leading to failures by regional and national governments to mount effective response until it was almost too late. If SARS-CoV-2 was a naturally occurring virus being studied by the Wuhan CDC or WIV labs, it would have already been sequenced, and China should have had much more reliable test kits at the beginning of the outbreak in Wuhan.
Lastly, the only “evidence” I have seen impugning the safety of the BSL-4 WIV lab is the mysterious cable by 2 US diplomats from the embassy in Beijing that visited in early 2019. However, neither have scientific backgrounds, and it was not an inspection, just a visit. For some reason, the US government has not declassified the said cable, all of us are only getting the content 2nd or 3rd hand, through filters with various motivations. The WIV lab was build at great expense in close collaboration with France, and the institution had/has numerous scientific collaborations with scientists and institutions across the world, not just the EcoAlliance and the NIH. None of these current and former collaborators have come forward to cast doubt upon the competence of the WIV lab.
For what it’s worth, my wife’s relative who works at the Wuhan CDC thinks the lab leak theory is preposterous, has always been preposterous and continues to be preposterous.
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: Nitwit Naomi Wolf has gone full horse shoe, and has been posting video on Twitter showing her practicing with an assault-type rifle. Her husband concurrently posted a tweet encouraging lefties to arm themselves- because China is encircling us. At the end of the tweet, he referenced Secretary of State Blinken, but did not say why.
The Biden administration has been fairly successful so far, and people like Wolf can’t stand it.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
Supply does indeed seem to be the constraint here going by what the coordinating Minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme has said. He’s said that we only get shipped about 300.000 doses at a time. Maybe a week and a half worth of doses.
JR
We have natural origin viruses that are roughly 98% genetically identical to SARS-2. These were published in Current Biology last year (SARS is closer to 75% identity with SARS-2). But we only know about these because researchers isolated them and studied them in a laboratory context.
China had a problem with SARS-related lab accidents a while back. So it’s entirely possible that a lab leak occurred. But it’s impossible to prove if it didn’t occur. And the current government of China is probably not going to be forthcoming if it did. They might not even know. So no, not provable either way.
Barney
If you want preliminary explanations and evidence for why the British response was so much worse than it should have been, Dominic Cummings’ evidence to parliamentary committees yesterday is the place to start. While he is frequently a lying toerag, and we must always bear in mind how much he’s trying to focus the blame on others, he did at least include personal apologies for his role. He really went for the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, accusing him of lying to the rest of the government about testing the elderly before discharging them from hospital back to care homes (this didn’t happen, and there were many deaths in care homes as a result); he also said Johnson was unfit to be PM.
He points to hesitancy before declaring the first lockdown in late March 2020, which might have been done one or two weeks earlier with clearer thinking. This seems to have been due to many people, scientists as well as politicians and administrators, being unsure what they were dealing with, which is somewhat understandable.
For the second UK lockdown in the autumn, he puts the blame much more on Johnson – he was getting clear advice then, but resisted; Cummings claims Johnson said it was “only killing 80-year-olds”. Cummings also claims that before the third lockdown in late December, Johnson said he’d rather see “bodies piled high”.
Mary G
Orange County again rocks – only 11 new cases today, only 66 people hospitalized, 8 of whom are in ICU. I really get the message that a lot of the Asian countries who seemed to have everything under control and struggling now, and that could be us if we don’t keep working on it.
I put this in an earlier post, but this tweet thread from Ian Dunt of testimony from Dominic Cummings about the fucked up shenanigans that went on in the UK government is just astonishing. Just a few sample tweets:
Tony Jay is going to write about it after he’s done drinking, but it’s just awful. And TFG will be worse if we ever get the facts.
Matt McIrvin
At this point, the lab-leak hypothesis is mostly about scoring right-wing political points and embarrassing Biden. Look at the major people who are pushing it–they’re all Republican US politicians going “we were right all along”, which is referring to the “man-made bioweapon” theories that were going around at the beginning of all this. They’re stoking conspiracy theorists.
Part of the point is to distract from Trump’s failure at controlling the pandemic so they can rehabilitate his reputation, maybe in preparation for reinstalling him as President in 2024 or maybe so they can all jockey to be the next Trump. Part of it is to sabotage current international attempts to control the pandemic so it will get worse and Biden will look worse.
Mary G
@Matt McIrvin: It’s also alleged Democrats who are showing off their contrarian muscles. Jon Chait at NYM is one of them.
Cermet
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That was my focus in point one.
I will add, while there is currently zero proof it was lab made, there is overwhelming evidence that this is a natural, unmodified virus. Saying otherwise isn’t just irresponsible it is flat out lying. But that is all the right wing fascist (aka as the republican party) know
Anne Laurie
Naomi Wolf, IMO, has been a major fame whore & general pest since she cartwheeled into minor celebrity starting in the 1980s, declaring that she had become a feminist because of her BURDENS, being as she was so incredibly sexxxy & desirable that every man wanted her & every woman hated her. This stance, and her willingness to (as was said of another fame-seeker) ‘attend the opening of an envelope’ was declared a refreshing novelty among all the ugly, man-hating lesbians which the contemporary popular media purported to make up the rest of Clan Feminist.
She’s been milking The Beauty Myth ever since, with decreasing returns — ‘young & dewy’ has a restricted shelf life. Predictably, she’s amped up the performative outrage as her desired audience drifts away. Her latest ‘I ar seryoos scholar of crimes against teh gayz‘ book got withdrawn from publication at the last moment, because it turned out its central premise wasn’t so much mistaken as blatantly wrong. Between this & the pandemic shutting down all the minor bookchat venues that were her lifeline, she seems to be sliding down the razor from ‘charming oddity’ to ‘potentially dangerous nutball’ at increasing speed…
ETA: She may, looking at the latest, be attempting to emulate Sarah Palin, ‘but from the LEFT!!!’
Sloane Ranger
Wednesday in the UK we had 3180 new cases. This is an 18% increase in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,
England – 2540 (up 459)
Northern Ireland – 66 (down 9)
Scotland – 546 (up 228)
Wales – 28 (up 9).
Deaths – There were 9 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. There has been no change to the rolling 7-day average. New deaths by nation, England – 8 and Wales – 1.
Testing – On Tuesday, 25 May a total of 741,912 tests were conducted. This is an increase in the rolling 7-day average of 2.4%. The PCR testing capacity estimated by labs was 650,668.
Hospitalisations – On Monday, 24 May there were 954 people in hospital. On Tuesday, 25th 128 people were on ventilators. As at 22 May, the rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions is up by 10.8%. It looks like the increase in case numbers is beginning to feed into hospital admissions.
Vaccinations – As at 25 May, a total of 38,378,564 people had received the 1st shot of a vaccine and 23,616,498 had had both. In percentage terms, this means that 72.9% of all adults in the UK have had 1 jab of a vaccine and 44.8% were fully vaccinated.
General – I was going to wax lyrical about Dominic Cummings and his testimony but I will refrain as it has already been covered. The fact is though, I have just been listening to a phone in programme and people are still defending the Government! Seems like give me Brexit or give me Death has turned into Give me Brexit AND Death!
NorthLeft12
If Ms. Wolf had agreed to the contact tracing scan, I have little doubt that the maître de would come up with some other hoop for her to jump through before allowing her to be seated.
She strikes me as one of those people who are put on the non grata list at better establishments everywhere…….fir her behaviour and abuse of staff.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 7,857 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, a record for a third consecutive day, for a cumulative reported total of 541,224 cases. He also reports 59 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 2,491 deaths — 0.46% of the cumulative reported total, 0.53% of resolved cases.
There are currently 69,408 active and contagious cases; 771 are in ICU, 392 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 4,598 patients recovered and were discharged, for a cumulative total of 469,325 patients recovered – 86.72% of the cumulative reported total.
20 new clusters were reported today: Jalan Pinang 39, Jalan Wawasan Tanjung, Serom Lima, Jalan Rusa Waha, and Jalan Tahana Industri in Johor; Sri Sentosa, Teluk Kemunting, Kampung Banggol Petaling, Sri Mahang, and Tanah Merah immigration detention depot in Kelantan; Desa Ranggu in Sabah; Beg Berkunci, Persiaran Kuala 2, and Tebuk Binjai in Selangor; Selumit in Sarawak; Taman Shamelin in Kuala Lumpur; Batu Sepuluh Jalan Gambang and Jalan Syawal in Pahang; Jalan Cenderawasih in Perak; and Jalan Kolej Yayasan in Melaka.
Beg Berkunci, Persiaran Kuala 2, Selumit, Sri Mahang, Jalan Tahana Industri, Taman Shamelin, and Batu Sepuluh Jalan Gambang are workplace clusters. Tebuk Binjai, Jalan Syawal, and Jalan Cenderawasih are religious clusters. Tanah Merah immigration detention depot is a detention cluster. Jalan Kolej Yayasan is an education cluster at a Ministry of Education-registered private school. The rest are community clusters.
7,849 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 2,675 cases: 60 in clusters, 2,034 close-contact screenings, and 581 other screenings. Sarawak reports 772 cases: 36 in clusters, 558 close-contact screenings, and 178 other screenings. Kelantan reports 754 cases: 182 in clusters, 436 close-contact screenings, and 136 other screenings.
Kuala Lumpur reports 559 local cases: 124 in clusters, 298 close-contact screenings, and 137 other screenings. Johor reports 548 local cases: 64 in clusters, 340 close-contact screenings, and 144 other screenings.
Kedah reports 441 cases: 36 in clusters, 281 close-contact screenings, and 124 other screenings.
Penang reports 365 cases: 52 in clusters, 137 close-contact screenings, and 176 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 353 cases: 51 in clusters, 236 close-contact screenings, and 66 other screenings.
Terengganu reports 282 cases: 60 in clusters, 184 close-contact screenings, and 38 other screenings. Pahang reports 238 cases: 97 in clusters, 120 close-contact screenings, and 21 other screenings. Melaka reports 234 cases: 70 in clusters, 131 close-contact screenings, and 33 other screenings. Perak reports 224 local cases: 32 in clusters, 123 close-contact screenings, and 69 other screenings. Sabah reports 216 local cases: 44 in clusters, 113 close-contact screenings, and 59 other screenings.
Labuan reports 170 cases: 90 in clusters, 43 close-contact screenings, and 37 other screenings.
Putrajaya reports 12 cases: eight close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. Perlis reports six cases: one close-contact screening,, and five other screenings.
Eight new cases today are imported: four in Perak, two in Kuala Lumpur, one in Johor, one in Sabah.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Call me stupid, but I don’t see how this helps them. They’re saying that when China attacked us, they not only unconditionally surrendered and threw the gates wide open, but attacked and harassed those of us who were trying to mount a defense.
IOW, they have admitted to being traitors. I concur with their assessment.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This is a repeat to the Conservative reaction to the 2007 banking crash; there never was a president Bush, it’s all Jimmy Carter’s fault. This time it’s “there never was a president Trump, it’s all China’s fault and Biden botched it in 2020 until the Right forced him to act Jan 6”
artem1s
how much of this latest round of conspiracies is about TFG defunding the Novel Corona US/China joint studies that were started during the Obama administration? The GQP is trying to rewrite the history of not only TFG’s pandemic fuckup, but trying to paint the failed trade wars with China as some Super Patriotic USA!!!9/11!!!USA Art of the Deal. in other words GQP = good at foreign relations and trade (blowing shit up). Demoncraps = weak kneed pinko commie lovers (science and diplomacy).
Dr. Ellis Cheever:
Someone doesn’t have to weaponize the bird flu.The birds are doing that.
Contagion
Ken
That’s an interesting map of vaccination rates. Way to go, Mongolia! (Mongolia??)
And the discrepancy between Nepal and Bhutan is notable, though that is mostly because I don’t know much about either so mentally treat them as interchangable.
VOR
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Lab leak gives them something to be outraged about and is a distraction from TFG’s pandemic failures. And yes, I fully expect Biden to be blamed for Trump’s inaction in early 2020, just as Obama was blamed for the Bear Sterns collapse in 2008 under Bush. Or blaming Clinton for 9/11. I remember a Daily Show piece at a Trump rally where one of the attendees felt it was suspicious Obama wasn’t in the Oval Office on the day of 9/11 – when he was still in the Illinois legislature.
Ken
Next up, Naomi Wolf complains that before she was allowed out of that restaurant, they made her swipe an electronic card that not only recorded her presence, but how much she spent.
lowtechcyclist
@Anne Laurie:
Oh, she’s already firmly ensconced herself in nutball territory. Can’t remember specifics, because she’s not one of those people I’ve ever paid much attention to. But she sure popped up a lot in 2020, and every last time, it was nutball stuff.
She’s become one of those people like Greenwald or Sirota that you hope nobody’s taking seriously anymore. In her case, it may be coming true, with any luck.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — the Scottish minister has said there were a further 464 people tested positive for Covid in Scotland with the test positivity rate of 1.8%. No mention of further deaths of people with confirmed cases so I’m assuming it was zero today. The official webpage reporting cases etc. doesn’t get updated until 2:00 p.m. local time.
That number of new positive tests is still high and probably driven by cases in Glasgow so it’s likely (but not certain) that the city will remain at level 3 restrictions after the promised review on Friday. One critical factor, the number of hospital beds being taken up by COVID-19 sufferers is reportedly down a little but that may not be enough to offset the increasing case numbers.
JR
@lowtechcyclist: It helps them, because the hypothesis can be used to justify the general racism that holds the Trump coalition together.
JR
@Ken: Bhutan is a pretty centrally controlled state that until recently was ruled by what could be considered a benevolent autocracy/monarchy. They are also almost completely dependent on India for trade, and so are pretty aware of the risks they face from COVID-19. If the king mandates vaccinations, people will get vaccinated.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/bhutan-begins-biggest-vaccination-drive-against-covid-19-2021-03-27/
Another Scott
The recent WHO report on their visit to Wuhan is probably the best information we’re going to have for years. They basically said (in careful scientific language something like “very highly unlikely”) that the virus didn’t come from a lab. They’re not going to say “100%” – science doesn’t work that way.
I assume the Biden-directed report will have more footnotes but reach the same conclusion.
Announcing the report preparation gets it out of the news, and forces the GQP to role out their next distraction to keep people from demanding that they pass Biden’s bills…
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
@Another Scott: It’s OT here, but I wanted to reply to what you said about my post on the information about how MO handles tipped wages. I understand what the constant harping on $2.13/hr is about – it’s about making those jobs sound as awful as possible. What I’m saying is that in some cases they are misrepresenting the situation for tipped servers. In MO, every retail or service business whose gross receipts are more than $500,000 are required to pay the state minimum wage of $10.30/hr. My pub, with an average of 12 employees, makes that much in gross receipts annually. Now, that’s not the $15.00 many liberals advocate for, but it’s not $2.13 either! I resent the way this situation is being lied about, at least for people in my state.
Another Scott
@Soprano2: Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It also fits explains in their mind why the Red States are such a mess and the Blue states aren’t; it’s a global Liberal Conspiracy and recycles the Young Earth Creationist conspiracy theory that dinosaur fossils are made in a factory in China.
mrmoshpotato
Questions:
1a. When did Hell get a hotel?
1b. Is this hotel in Hell’s Kitchen, and this asshole is a confused asshole?
2a. How’s the rooftop view?
2b. What can you see from the rooftop?
3. What drink is their specialty?
4. Why hasn’t this selfish asshole been flung into the Sun?
Ken
Five minutes after Dorothy Parker showed up and demanded to speak to the management.
Kent
How did that woman ever earn a Rhodes Scholarship?
J R in WV
@JR:
This is NOT me, I don’t know where this JR is from, but they isn’t from our little cove of Appalachia. ;~) I have no knowledge of the source of SARS2-Covid-19, and only an opinion that it is a zoonotic infection.
J R in WV
@Soprano2:
How many people on B-J manage a business in MO and know the wage laws in MO down pat…?
There is a difference between being in error and lying, and wage regulations vary quite a bit between and within the various states and local governments.So there’s plenty of room to make a mistake. I have actually gotten a letter from Social security mailed to my mailing address asking me to report my address to Soc Security. Whut?
Now maybe someone hates MO enough to fabricate and lie about wage requirements there… but I would put my money on honest error before diving into lies and hate. I would lie about Texas, but that isn’t necessary, the truth is quite sufficiently damming.